Oct 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's

administration is in talks with several quantum-computing

companies to take equity stakes in exchange for federal funding,

the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people

familiar with the matter.

Companies including IonQ ( IONQ ), Rigetti Computing ( RGTI )

and D-Wave Quantum ( QBTS ) are discussing the

government becoming a shareholder as part of the agreements, the

report said, adding that the discussions include minimum funding

awards from Washington of $10 million each.

Other companies such as Quantum Computing ( QUBT ) and Atom

Computing are considering similar arrangements, the Journal

added.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Earlier this year, Trump said the U.S. would take a 10%

stake in Intel that converts government grants into an equity

share, the latest extraordinary intervention by the White House

in corporate America.

Other deals include an agreement for the Pentagon to

become the largest shareholder in a small mining company, MP

Materials ( MP ) to boost output of rare earth magnets and the

U.S. government's winning a "golden share" with certain veto

rights as part of a deal to allow Japan's Nippon Steel ( NISTF )

to buy U.S. Steel.

Ion declined to comment while the White House, U.S.

Commerce Department, Rigetti Computing ( RGTI ), D-Wave Quantum ( QBTS ), Atom

Computing and Quantum Computing ( QUBT ) did not immediately respond to a

Reuters request for comment.

U.S. Deputy Commerce Secretary Paul Dabbar, a former

quantum-computing executive and Energy Department official, is

leading the funding discussions with companies in the industry,

the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

In February, Microsoft ( MSFT ) unveiled a new chip that

it said showed quantum computing is "years, not decades" away,

joining Google and IBM ( IBM ) in predicting that a

fundamental change in computing technology is much closer than

recently believed.

(Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona

and Lincoln Feast.)